1. Field of Art
This invention relates generally to an apparatus for making cylindrical bales, commonly referred to as a round baler. More particularly, this invention pertains to a baler of the type having a fixed bale forming chamber which is at least partially defined by a conveyor which is guided along a continuous cylindrical wall.
2. Description of Art
Prior art balers generally have a bale forming chamber defined by an apron comprising an array of side-by-side belts, transverse slats trained on chains, a plurality of rolls or a combination of these various elements, e.g. rolls and belts. Crop material such as hay or straw is picked up from the ground as the baler traverses the field, fed into a fixed or variable chamber where it is accumulated and compressed to form a cylindrical package of crop material. The formed package, while in its compacted condition inside the chamber, is wrapped with net, plastic film, twine or the like, to produce a completed round bale which is then ejected from the chamber onto the ground for subsequent handling.
A baler having a fixed chamber, that is, a bale forming chamber that does not vary in size, is disclosed in UK Patent Application GB 2,001,231 A. The chamber is defined by a pair of floor rolls and a cylindrical wall along which the inner run of a conveyor is guided. This conveyor comprises a pair of opposing chains between which a plurality of slats is mounted for engaging and rotating the crop material fed into the bale forming chamber. The conveyor leaves the chamber at its front end near the crop inlet and runs upwardly and rearwardly along the outside of the bale chamber wall to the back of the baler from where it is guided downwardly to enter again into the chamber in the vicinity of the floor rolls.
A portion of the crop material fed into the bale chamber may become trapped between the slats of the conveyor and the cylindrical wall and may be pulled out of the chamber by these slats. Some material may fall back on the windrow in front of the pick-up unit and be recuperated by the same, but the rest is carried by the outer run of the conveyor along the upper surface of the bale chamber until it reaches the rear portion of the baler from where it falls onto the field and is lost.